The month of May at Indianapolis used to usher in three straight weeks of practice on the oval for the 500. But that has been shortened in recent years, and a new tradition was born, the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis using part of the speedway’s oval combined with an infield road course.

For the second year in a row, former Sausalito resident JR Hildebrand was signed to run both Indy events for what is now Ed Carpenter Racing. He qualified the No. 6 Preferred Freezer Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevy 16th and ran mid-pack for much of the race, constantly battling with cars in front of and behind him.

Hildebrand was in a different pit sequence than the leaders, needing to pit earlier for his final fuel stop. But a strategy emerged for jumping to the front of the group of five cars around him who were on the same pit strategy. If Hildebrand could run a couple laps longer on his fuel run, and run faster laps in clean air, he could perhaps put his immediate competitors behind him.

Hildebrand was sandwiched between Conor Daly and reigning Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya. Daly darted into the pits while Hildebrand stayed out, and that’s when bad luck struck.
While Daly was in pit lane a full-course caution came out.

“It was very frustrating. We ran a good first couple of stints. We were running I think 13th and were able to pass people on track, and not a lot of guys could. We had a strong car in the places that mattered,” Hildebrand said. “We were trying to outlast them if you will, leapfrog them in the pit exchange.”

Even worse, the first lap around the pits were closed. Rules state that if a car has to pit for fuel when the pits are closed, it falls to the tail end of the field when the green flies again. But if Hildebrand were to stay out and pit with the rest, he’d keep his relative position.

Hildebrand’s telemetry said that he had just enough fuel to go that one more lap and he didn’t enter the closed pits for fuel. But he ran just short and had to be towed in, losing a lap to the field under caution.

One of just two cars a lap down, Hildebrand had to accept his fate and now his goal was to avoid being the last car running.

With no “Lucky Dog” rule as in NASCAR that allows the leading lapped car to get a lap back after a caution period, Hildebrand lost any hope of a top finish. Instead he battled with that one other car a lap down, that of Alex Tagliani, to try to avoid being caboose on the field. Lady Luck at Indy had delivered another gut punch.

The salt in the wound was that Daly, through the luck of the draw, cycled to the front of the field when all the leaders pitted under the caution. He ran many laps at the front, and Hildebrand had already proven that he could keep up with Daly.

Hildebrand did find a tiny bit of redemption, passing Tagliani aggressively on the final lap to avoid being last on the road.